De Klerk to help Lions
13 Mar 2010
The president of the GLRU Kevin de Klerk will travel to New Zealand in an attempt to boost the disjointed Lions.
The Lions have tried their best to state there are no problems in the team, but results suggest otherwise. Five straight losses and a record 73-12 loss to the Waratahs on Friday has necessitated De Klerk flying out to provide ‘moral support’ for Dick Muir’s team.
‘The guys need our support, and I want to provide it first-hand,’ said De Klerk. ‘In addition I want to see what can be done to change our fortunes.’
De Klerk also denied the Lions are looking to axe coach Muir.
‘Now is not the time for drastic measures. The team has played well and improved with every outing in their first three matches, despite defeat. In the first three weeks I felt we were playing a decent game, but in the last two we dropped off. I am however confident that matters can be put right.’
The Lions face the Crusaders next week.
26 Comments
13 Mar 2010, 11:29 am
Now what support can he give? Maybe give each player another R1 m. to make a few tackles?
13 Mar 2010, 12:30 pm
,,,Is he an idiot when he say’s ,,, “have improved with every outing” he does know they’re not playing cricket … Goooooo de Klerk
13 Mar 2010, 12:33 pm
perhaps he’s out with retenchment letters,,, well we can all Hope
13 Mar 2010, 12:34 pm
Why waste the money on the fight? These guys are a laugh a minute and a complete disgrace to SA rugby. Fire the lot and close down Ellis Park or whatever it’s called and let a new franchise have a crack……
13 Mar 2010, 12:38 pm
Hoping he is bringing his boots and shoulder pads. Maybe he can teach them how to tackle?
13 Mar 2010, 13:00 pm
Lekka free trip… WTF is he gonna add to the party???
13 Mar 2010, 13:13 pm
These pussies need more than a de Klerk to save their @sses..!!
13 Mar 2010, 13:21 pm
Well I am watching the highlights of the match and
13 Mar 2010, 13:23 pm
some players need to be fired, Rose just gooooooo.
13 Mar 2010, 13:25 pm
@RedLion:
Yeah Rose is a complete joke. Why any coach bothers to play him is beyond me. It is a disgrace the way he dives out of the way everytime he needs to make a tackle. Rather get Earl lewis in there.
13 Mar 2010, 13:32 pm
“These pussies need more than a de Klerk to save their @sses..!!”
Correct, they need the whole fooking reconciliation commission.
13 Mar 2010, 13:36 pm
@Springbokvel:
13 Mar 2010, 13:37 pm
The Lions have been in the the last 10 years nothing short of an embarrassment to SA. Considering where they’re located and the talent that is at their disposal, they should be ruling SA rugby. It’s no coincidence that three players left and were desperate enough to go to court for it.
Whether Solly was ever great or not, having spent a season at the Lions, it was enough to drive him to quit the game for a while. This also applied to other players of colour. They have done very little towards transformation, even though they’re situated right next to Soweto and the Soweto Rugby Club; an untapped talent pool that’s crying out for greater investment.
Why are the Lions playing even worse now the Muir has gone there? Was he the reason the Boks started running everything from the tryline in 2008? A good coach would have sorted out defensive abilities first before worrying about attack.
De Klerk is not going to be able to help. In fact it will become a distraction. What he needs to do is stay at home and look at changing the insular mentality of the club.
Let’s hope that an emerging talent like Mejekevu doesn’t disappear off the radar.
13 Mar 2010, 13:39 pm
I suppose de Klerk will have to play off the bench until he gets back into it. Pity as he’d probably strengthen the team.
13 Mar 2010, 13:41 pm
In his hey day De Klerk was one of the most feared locks in
South African rugby.So he might give them a pep talk or two.
So what is wrong with Lions rugby? Plenty.
First all one has to realise that there are only so many
first class players in South African rugby.We all should
stop kidding ourselves that South African rugby is healthy to
the core.
The EOYT tour exposed many weaknesses.The usual shopping
at the end of the season has not strengthened SA rugby.
All it has done is to strengthen some Unions at the expense
of others.
The only two franchises who have been able to keep their
house in order are of course the Bulls and Cheetahs.The
Sharks and Stormers had to rely heavily on their imports,
which in light of the Maties superiority and Ikeys performances in the University cup difficult to understand.
The Sharks are doing slightly better than the Lions and
have four bonus points compared to the Lions 2.
So what does that tell us. Quite simply that the strength
of South African rugby taking its superior number of
players into account is not as strong as certain commentators
would make us believe.
There needs to be a complete reassessment of cetain
postions if the Boks want to defend their crown succesfully
next year.
Te Super 14 is soon to be a Super 15 competition, which
makes it ideal for a pool system of 3, containing five
teams each.Once the pool games are completed only the
top 3 teams of each pool should advance to the round
robin of nine.
It will weed out the weaker teams and save myself and other
Lions supporters of further embarrassment.The surviving S A
teams will in that scenario be able to replenish their
teams from I would presume the Lions and Cheetahs should
they suffer many casualties.
13 Mar 2010, 13:52 pm
Lions problems are 4 fold
Muir
Spencer
Rose
Baywatch
get shot of those 4 and you have the nucleus for some decent possibilities to emerge.
If De Klerk wants to resurrect Lions rugby those are the 4 areas he has to address. Sort those 4 out or better still just simply show them the door and you on your way to recovery.
Jake White winning ways consultancy analysis posed that Loffie was the cancer in the Lions setup, he got him axed by management and since then 3 or 4 players, Fourie, Ludick, Alberts etc. handed in their resignations. Muir was given the post ahead of HM, and we go from bad to worse.
Rose and Spencer should go, Baywatch too, and Muir should be dropped out of coaching. He is a liability at Lions and at Bok’s, not a foggy clue and he reckons he’s such a **** hot DOR.
13 Mar 2010, 13:53 pm
@Brentie1: Should’ve taken a defense coach with him.
13 Mar 2010, 14:07 pm
Spencer and Rose probaly cost the lions 3 to 4 tries a game.
13 Mar 2010, 14:45 pm
Dont panic guys – sa rugby has always done well when wp and northerns are strong – which they are at the moment. natal were traditionally useless (sport pienaar i think the b league was called)- and the lions had a brief moment in the sun under francois pienaar – but otherwise have never made any worthwhile contribution to sa rugby. De klerk going to new zealand just goes to show how arrogant the rugby hierachy are and highlights once again the total disregard they have for the value of money. While 80% of south africans are struggling to make ends meet – on a whim De Klerk decides to blow 50k plus on flights hotels and restaurants in the name of giving his pathetic rugby team a “pep talk”. Sickening stuff – the Lions will lose by another 50 next Saturday – and guaranteed De klerk will still say that him going over there was “positive” “necessary” and whatever other drivel he can come up with to justify his trip. Enjoy your all expenses paid holiday De klerk.
13 Mar 2010, 15:04 pm
17. Storm outta hell
No defensive coach can solve these problems.Defending is
both an attitude and skill.If you don’t know how these
120kg props and locks will run over you like a freight train
and not even have the decency to pick you up once they have done
so!
13 Mar 2010, 16:31 pm
During the CCup the Lions defence was improving, however, a new srtucture – again – has put paid to that, in favour of all out inefectual attack.
What is really needed is some real recruiting, all across the park. Rose, despite his sometimes brilliant touches is a liability, wings not much better, centres at CC level. Locks at Vodacom cup level.
In short keep Vermaak, Clever, Minnie, plus Franco and Heinke vdMerwe, and start again from there. A whole new coaching, management and administration wouldn’t hurt, along with a new stadium.
13 Mar 2010, 17:39 pm
The Lions’ season was a write off before it even started, and KdK already faced the derlict when he was appointed.
The Touring party was selected in such a manner that Rose, Spencer, Shavanga and others cannot be dropped.
The reason Muir brought back Rose to the line up hasn’t got much to do with rugby I guess.
14 Mar 2010, 05:46 am
I do feel for poor Kevin de Klerk, who has an enormous job ahead of him if he’s to turn this rabble around.
He’s bloody naive, though, if he thinks anything will come from a whistle-stop trip to NZ. Save the money, Kev, pick up the phone and call each of those clowns who masquerade each week as Lions and tell them that you’ll withold their pay should they reproduce such spineless **** again.
The truth of the matter is that the Lions’ problems are deep, so deep that the remedy will require a wholesale change of approach, a new strategic plan and direction, an unwavering commitment to delivering on it, lots of tears along the way (along with genuine patience) and, hopefully, a team we can again be proud of. Again ‘share the pride’ as the marketing slogan goes…a message to the big wigs at Ellis Park…for your edification, only someone with the mental capacity of an amoeba would feel ‘pride’ in the shite you dished up on Friday night, have generally been dishing up for the best part of the last decade.
Pride se moer!
Sadly, this – a bit of pride, a carefully-crafted plan and a commitment to its implementation – has been so non-existent of late, to the point where we seem to be the only side in Super Rugby that CONSISTENTLY performs poorly. Look at the Reds, they’re moving in the right direction; look at the Chiefs, walking bonus points a few years back, now holding their own; look at the Lions…one dismal season after another, ad naseum.
Remember, Ludeke was ‘****’ and had to go, now he’s with the Bulls and they’re on fire, remember, Loffie was ‘****’ and had to go, now we’re going backwards.
Ultimately, we don’t have the players to succeed…we lose talented players, we recruit **** like Chivanga and Spencer, we are forced to promote mediocre Vodacom Cup players to the starting XV and so the merry-go-round spins, season after painful season.
It will only stop when the mess that is Gauteng Rugby is tackled with honesty, without fear or favour. Clean the joint out and start afresh.
I don’t buy it that Johannesburg and Gauteng, the richest city and province in the country, do not have the players, the resources, the sponsorhsip dollars, to be a force. I don’t buy it, either, that people don’t want to play in Jo’burg per se.
The don’t want to play for a poorly administered, rudderless, will-lacking bunch of charlatans who are forever the laughing stock of Super Rugby and perennial losers.
Hell, if ****-holes like Manchester and Liverpool can be home to major teams in Europe, there’s no reason why – in the professional era – Jo’burg cannot achieve the same.
So can the trip, Kevin, spend it deep in thought in your plush Doornfontein…that way, the path to redemption may just get underway.
14 Mar 2010, 05:51 am
“The don’t” should read “they don’t” and “in your plush Doornfontein” should have the word “office added at the end.
My fingers running away as the blood pressure rises.
14 Mar 2010, 07:18 am
So what position will de Klerk play ?
@RedLion:
You are a real rugby fan !
which is alot more that can be said for many bloggers here. Atleast there remain some fans who stick by their team thru thick’n'thin, no matter how hard it is to squeeze some love from the rugby-sized lemon.
Too many opportunists here who jump the wagon at the first sign of distress and start supporting only teams that win. Yipee, lets all be ManU-scum fans and never enter the gates of Old Trafford (like 99% of them) but ‘associate’ yourslef with an established winning formula. Where is the blood sweat’n'tears seeping from that jersey; what a bunch of populist-seeking opportunists they are. Where is the glory in that ? how on Earth can you learn to win before you study your losses ?
2 of most successful S12/14 teams – Crusaders & Bulls – know what the basement felt like without any windows before taking the lift to the penthouse suite and enjoying the 360deg views.
The likes of KKK and his “I only support winners” are the very worst of so-called ‘fans’. Always remember to beware of strangers bearing gifts.
14 Mar 2010, 18:43 pm
I actually agree now with no 4 comment above. I used to say the old Tvl has potential but ja now it’s just gone too bad for too long. Nobody really cares anymore. Close the whole thing down, give the franchise to PE. Rugby is clearly dead in Joburg and that’s that.
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